LIMERICK — A pair of local nonprofit groups were among the 11 lucky recipients who accepted a portion of the $172,000 recently raised by about 550 John Middleton Company employees.

Folks from the Greater Norristown Police Athletic League and Laurel House were on hand to receive their checks at a ceremony held Sept. 12 at the cigar manufacturer’s sprawling Limerick facility.

PAL was awarded $6,000 for summer programs focusing on activities for middle-school youth at the Norristown center.

“We were notified a couple of weeks beforehand that we were going to receive a grant from the employee giving fund and were asked to be at the presentation out in Limerick,” noted Brett Wells, PAL director. “In this tough economy I don’t know how thick the competition was, but when it was all said and done we received a $6,000 grant and we are incredibly grateful. We can only charge so much for our programs that have such an impact on the young people in this community, so we depend so much on the corporate dollars and grants that we get.”

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John Middleton is a multi-million dollar company with locations in Limerick and King of Prussia. Starting out as a small tobacco shop in Philadelphia in 1856 and shifting to manufacturing pipe tobacco a century later, it ultimately introduced a signature product in 1968 that combined the best of both worlds: a machine-made cigar stuffed with pipe tobacco.

Altria Group, Inc., is the parent company of John Middleton Company and Phillip Morris USA.

The Richmond-based Altria began the Altria Companies Employee Community Fund with its other subsidiaries more than a decade ago, but this marks the second year that Middleton employees have contributed to what is one of the few employee-driven workplace giving programs.

This year’s collection at Middleton topped last year’s effort by $22,000, noted Duffy Wagner, the company’s director of manufacturing.

“We see how the nonprofits in our community help to make this a better place and we are glad to get a chance to support them,” he said. “Every dollar an employee gives goes directly to one of these charities. Altria covers all administration costs. There’s no overhead in this thing. We have employees who lead this effort across both of our facilities for contributions into the fund, and while they solicit funds they also ask employees to pick the focus areas for giving once all the funds are received.”

Employees indicated that their generosity should be directed into alleviating domestic violence, homelessness and hunger while also funding senior and youth services.

“We got a lot more requests in than we were able to distribute checks to, and our employee team determines which of those worthy causes will get the money,” Wagner noted.

While Laurel House is a repeat beneficiary, it was the first time that PAL had applied, noted Barbara Detwiler, who heads up the group of employees who review the nonprofits’ applications and ultimately decides who gets the money.

“Three team members reviewed the same grant, so that way they could have their own opinion of it and grade it,” Detwiler said. “They consider the amounts the organization is asking for and decide if they want to give a full or partial amount. In the case of PAL, the three individuals who reviewed the grant graded them an A and agreed they should get the full amount.”

“This is only our second year of doing this fund and I think we’re still unrecognized,” Wagner said. “We have a lot of employees that live in the Norristown area and the more charities that will apply next year and fill out a lot paper work and send it in, that would be great.”